The Benefits of Altruistic Behaviour

The Dalai Lama

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Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

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Dr. Samuel P. Oliner is emeritus professor of sociology at Humboldt State University and founder/director of the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behaviour Institute. He is also author and co-author of numerous articles on the Holocaust, altruism, prosocial behaviour, and national and international race relations. see http://www2.humboldt.edu/altruism/publications

To quote from http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/can-love-save-the-world/ordinary-heroes“We must build bonds through caring for people not only in our own community but outside it. Reaching out to others…………………has been the force of much that is good in the world. It has saved innumerable lives and inspired new acts of generosity and heroism”. Clearly this reaching out is not only on the intellectual level but also emotional and spiritual. He says: “Our institutions must do more than talk about caring; they must also model it, giving, receiving, and expecting caring from all participants. School staff, faculty, and administrators, family members, priests, ministers, rabbis, and mullahs must forgo empty platitudes and model caring behaviour on a daily basis.”

“Selflessness is as old as war and, I believe, more deeply human. In a poem written 700 years ago, Poland’s Queen Jadwiga captured the essence of altruism. She called it love”.

Nor can that endure
Which has not its foundations upon love,
For love alone diminishes not, but shines with its own light,
Makes an end of discord, softens the fires of hate,
Restores peace in the world,
Brings together the sundered, redresses wrong,
Aids all and injures none.
And who so invokes its aid will find peace and safety,
And have no fear of future ill.”

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Reducing Prejudice

The findings emerged from the analysis of seven previous studies on community relations carried out between 2002 and 2012 in England, Europe, the United States and South Africa, and specifically tried to rule out the idea that the results can be explained by tolerant people being more likely to live in mixed neighbourhoods.

To eliminate the possibility that more tolerant people tend to live in more ethnically diverse areas, which would introduce bias to the results, two of the seven studies were conducted over several years to see how peoples’ attitudes changed over time, the researchers said.

This showed that even the attitudes of the most prejudiced people who did not mix at all with ethnic minorities became more tolerant over time as a result of living in areas were others were mixing on a daily basis, the researchers found.

“We have shown that positive contact between people belonging to different ethnic groups leads to more tolerant societies overall,” said Professor Miles Hewstone of Oxford University who led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

“Astonishingly, we don’t just see reduced prejudice among people who have direct contact with ethnic minorities. It isn’t even confined to those whose friends have contact with minorities. Simply living in a neighbourhood where other people are mixing with minorities is enough to reduce racial prejudice,” Professor Hewstone said.

“If two white people with identical views went to live in different postcodes for a year, the person in the neighbourhood with more mixing between ethnic groups would likely leave more tolerant. We would see this effect even if they never personally spoke to people from other ethnicities. The size of this ‘passive tolerance’ effect on people’s prejudice is of the same order as the effect of passive smoking on lung cancer risk,” he said.

The research focused in surveys of more than 1,000 Germans from 50 districts across Germany each with different ethnic mixtures. They were asked questions such as whether they agree that there were too many foreigners, or whether foreigners are a burden on social security or are a threat to jobs.

In the name of GOD, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
There is no other god beside GOD

Quran

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49:13

ﭵﭶﭷﭸﭹﭺﭻﭼﭽﭾﭿﮀﮁﮂﮃﮄﮅﮆﮇﮈﮉﮊﮋ

SAHIH INTERNATIONAL

O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.

Ghassan and Rabbi Gluck OBE after a visit to Springhill Prison in Aylesbury.

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— John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods Market

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WHO WE ARE

The Abrahamic Reunion is a team of spiritual peacemakers dedicated to uplifting human consciousness and building peace in the Holy Land and globally by opening hearts to the love and wisdom of all spiritual traditions. Abrahamic reunion (England) is a registered charity 1177751.